Posts Tagged: feminism

I stumbled across a list of “good statements for women to practice” the other day and thought I’d share them. Not knowing the source, I turned to Google and instead of that list I found 10 Etiquette Rules Every Modern Woman Should Know And Practice. It’s telling me to “always be chic, graceful, and a little bit sassy”, like gently letting a guy who asked you out down or just not having too many drinks. Thank you and fuck you world.

Over the past few weeks testimonials and stories about widespread misogynism and how it affects women have been shared through #metoo. What started as a hashtag on Twitter by the actress Alyssa Milano, has now become a movement and it is a painful testimony illustrating that anyone can be a victim of sexual harassment. What I think is the most important aspect is the view on sexual assaults, and the ambiguity it stands for – that it shows that all men are potential predators. This is about how society allows these men to take advantage of women of all class, culture and social status. The voices of #metoo demonstrate the scale and extent of sexual abuse and harassment that women face every day. It demonstrates the scale and extent of sexual abuse and harassment that men put women through every day.

Something is happening. Thank you all who have shared stories. We are placing the blame where it belongs. We are here.

There’s nothing I think is more important than finding, networking and supporting women – in my personal life and in my work. Right now there are a lot of good things circling around the www for women in digital and tech. For women and by women, just as it should be. Apologize for the Stockholm focus but here are a few top of mind that I think is worth a mention:

Tekla Festival – “When Robyn teamed up Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology last year to present a technology festival for girls, it was proposed as a one-time event. But due to popular demand, the singer-songwriter’s Tekla Festival is back for an encore on April 9, 2016.” Say no more.

Women in Tech (Stockholm)– Behind Women In Tech stands some of Sweden’s largest media and technology companies. A network that wants to inspire women to choose a future in tech and media by providing network and inspiration.

SheSays – An award-winning organization running free mentorship and events to women in the creative industry. Why? Because we want to see more women at the top. I myself am a mentor in the programme in Stockholm.

Pepp.nu – A mentor programme to enlighten and inspire young girls about the tech industry.

Rättviseförmedlingen – Not nisched within tech and/or women, but a very important initiative working for diversity in all industries.

Coming back from Lisbon I had to spend a few hours on the airport in Frankfurt. So I did what I always do – I bought new books. One of them was Sophia Amoruso’s #GIRLBOSS. I’ve seen it, but never felt the urge to read it until now, being very bored and too tired to read anything heavy. So what is #GIRLBOSS? It is the philosophy of Nasty Gal’s founder Sophia Amoruso.

I started reading it with very low expectations as I do not appreciate what I call American feminism that has been portrayed in several popular books by bad-ass women in the past few years. I’m talking about Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Lena Dunham, Mindy Kaling, Caitlin Moran and more. I’ve actually read all those and ended up extremely disappointed since the notion of what they call feminism is being ‘one of the guys’ and absolutely nothing more to it. I don’t know why I was surprised but it left me sad. Anyhow, I thought this was going to be another one of those books but Amoruso clearly states on the very first page that this is not a feminist manifest, although she calls herself a feminist. I appreciate that.

Amoruso’s only 30 years old, and she shares her story of how she went from an anti-capitalistic community college dropout to the CEO of a 100 million dollar company. Sofia and her personal story is a big part of the Nasty Gal brand. I had absolutely no idea what an empire Nasty Gal is. It’s a fascinating and inspiring story, sprinkled with semi-mindful advice and foul language that wants to show that you can make something purely out of passion and drive. I didn’t think it’d work for me, but it did. I read it cover-to-cover and felt both amused and inspired. I love bossy girls. I love reading about them. I love the feeling that there will be more of us. And I really, really long to move to LA.

I attended the fair Ecommerce Stocholm the other day, a business fair for people working within the e-commerce industry. I was there for work myself, recruiting to Beyond Retail’s talent network so I can’t say I participated that much in any other activities. But from what I saw and overheard it was what you usually get. That’s not what this post is about though. Regardless of what I learned or did not learn from the event, the only thing I’m taking with me is that the organizers and the participants were mostly men. I did a quick calculation based on the bookings (note: I was being generous in my calculations):

Men choose men. Women choose men. It’s not competence based – that’s the patriarchy. So it’s not that I’m surprised, but I am still disappointed. Because in my personal life I can choose what people I surround myself with and the situations I am in, in work I most often can’t.